Main menu

Tag Archives: paradise

Post navigation

It’s been over two months since the moved to our new beach place and, I have to say, it is better than I expected. We are enjoying a great summer near the ocean; exploring, relaxing, adventuring and refreshing as we gear up for this upcoming school year. This summer has given me a small glimpse into my future with the hubs and no kids. I’ve seen a quick view of what empty nest life will be like. I am incredibly sad to see this season go, but, after this summer, I’m becoming more excited for the next season. This coming school year, both of my children will be seniors; one in high school and one in college. Also, my daughter gets married in a little less than a year! This means over the next year, we will choose a college for our son. Our son will graduate from high school. We will plan and put together a wedding for our daughter. Our daughter will graduate from college and become a registered nurse. And about one year from now, our daughter will get married! Lots of changes on the horizon. Lots of emotions to be had.

I have a ridiculous amount of photos to share from the first couple of months in our beach place. Scroll on if you’re bored and have time.

So, it’s been nearly a year since I’ve posted to the blog but this big change warranted a post. Hoping to get back to more postings about our new journey.

It seems like most people have a similar story; the couple meet in college, they fall in love and get married. They spend the next 10 years or so traveling, building their careers, building a home with pretty things and enjoying time with each other before settling down to have children. Good, bad or indifferent, our story is the opposite of most.

My husband and I met when we were 16 during my junior and his senior year of high school. We fell in love and got engaged at 19 and 20, married at 20 and 21 had our first baby at 21 and 22 with the second baby at 24 and 25. There was no money or time to travel, to build a career, to build a home with pretty things or spend a lot of time together. We focused on our children and our family.

Then in the blink of an eye, we realized our children are pretty much grown. We took a step back and evaluated. We have been married for nearly 22 years and most of our furniture was given to us and we had no matching dishes or towels (just to nam a few). We had been so focused on raising children, we hadn’t really focused on all the little things. We were living like college students!

So we decided to make a big change. We decided to sell our family home and purchase a small town home near the beach. Our town home is about half the size of our family home. This was the perfect opportunity to throw away all of our old crap and actually be adults and buy and fill our home with new and pretty things.

Our daughter has moved out and will be getting married next year (yikes!). Our son will be 18 in a month and will spend his senior year in the town home before he goes to college. After that, it will be just the two of us. We have never truly been married without kids but we are excited about this next season of our lives. While everyone else our age is raising a family, we will be biking to the beach to watch the sunset, paddleboarding down the intercoastal, fishing from our boat, walking to beach restaurants for dinner and traveling the world.

Even though our story is different, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I have two amazing (ahem) adult children (still so hard to say) that I am incredibly proud of and a loving husband that I get to spend the rest of my life with. So while it’s sad to see my children go, I am excited to step into the next phase of our marriage; our fun empty nest phase.